How to Transfer Photos from iPhone to PC

It is no secret that iPhones play extremely well with Macs. But not so much with PCs. So much so, that even the Windows version of iTunes pretty much blows. Also, by default, Apple doesn’t even allow users to transfer data from their iPhone over to their PC or Mac. So, what if you wanted to export iPhone pictures to your PC running Windows 10? Well, read this article and learn exactly how you can transfer iPhone photos to PC:

Note: There are a number of ways to do this, and I will be telling you about the 5 best ones. I’m doing this using an iPhone running iOS 10, and Windows 10 without iTunes installed.

1. Windows’ Photos App

The easiest method to do this, is to use the built-in Photos app on Windows. This app allows users to easily import photos from their iPhone onto their Windows PC. To do this, simply follow the steps below:

Connect your iPhone to your Windows PC. On your iPhone, you will see a prompt asking whether your iPhone should allow the PC to access photos and videos, tap on “Allow”.

Next, on your Windows PC, launch the Photos app. Here, click on the Import icon on the top right of the app window.

Select the images you want to import. You can select individual images, or simply import them all. Click on “Continue”, and that’s it.

Your selected photos will now be imported on your Windows PC, thanks to the Photos app. If you don’t use the Photos app, or don’t have it on your PC, you can use one of the other four methods.

2. Windows Explorer

No matter what version of Windows you’re using (seriously, stop using XP now), you obviously have the Windows Explorer. To use the Windows Explorer to import photos from your iPhone, you can simply follow the steps given below:

Connect your iPhone to your Windows PC. On your iPhone, tap on “Allow”, when it prompts you to.

Open the Windows Explorer. You can do this by double clicking on the “This PC” icon on your desktop, or by clicking on the “Explorer” icon in the taskbar. You can also use “Windows + E” to launch the Windows Explorer. In the explorer, navigate to “This PC“.

You will see your iPhone mounted on your PC. Open it, and head to the DCIM folder. This folder will contain a number of subfolders, each of which will have photos and videos that are saved on your iPhone. Simply copy and paste the images that you want to transfer to your Windows PC.

That’s basically all you need to do, to export photos from your iPhone into your Windows PC.

3. iCloud Photos

iPhones have this great feature called “iCloud Photo Library“, which automatically syncs all the images you take on your iPhone with your iCloud account. So, they are available on every device you have. If you haven’t enabled iCloud Photo Library, simply go to Settings -> Photos and Camera. Here, turn on “iCloud Photo Library”. Your photos will be uploaded to your iCloud account.

Now that you’ve done that, and your photos have synced to iCloud, the rest is very easy.

On your Windows PC, open up a browser window, and go to iCloud. Sign in with your Apple ID, and go to Photos.

You will see all of your Photos in your web browser. Click on Select photos, and select the ones you want to export (press Ctrl to select multiple photos).

Next, click on “Download” to download them to your PC.

That’s it. All the photos you want to export will now be available on your PC. You can delete them from your iPhone if you wish.

4. Google Photos

If you use Google Photos on your iPhone, you can easily use it to transfer photos to your Windows PC. If you want to use Google Photos to transfer photos to your Windows PC, simply follow the steps below:

Your selected photos will then be downloaded onto your Windows PC. This is another fast way of transferring photos.

5. Google Drive or Dropbox

You can also choose to use a cloud storage service in order to transfer your photos from your iPhone to your Windows PC. The best part about this is that you don’t need to have a PC running Windows 10, unlike the first method. To use Google Drive, or Dropbox to transfer photos, you can do the following:

First, download the Google Drive, or Dropbox app on your iPhone. Then, upload your photos on to the cloud. Next, on your PC, open Google Drive, or Dropbox, and login with your account. You will see all your uploaded photos. Simply select the ones that you want to download, click on the three dots, and select “Download”.

The photos will then be downloaded to your Windows PC, and you can simply delete them off your iPhone, and free up some space, as well.

Bonus: Use IFTTT Recipes to Automatically Upload Photos

If you take a lot of pictures from your iPhone, and you like to back them all up on your Windows PC, or on Google Drive, or Dropbox, you can automate the task of uploading the photos to IFTTT. You can create a simple recipe to upload photos from your Camera Roll to Google Drive, or Dropbox.

You can simply create a recipe that goes “If new photo is added to Camera Roll, then upload it to Dropbox“. To read about this recipe in detail, check out our article on IFTTT Recipes.

Easily Transfer iPhone Photos to Windows PC

All of these methods should work just fine for transferring photos from an iPhone to your Windows PC. These methods will also work on a Mac, by the way, except for the Windows Photos, and Windows Explorer method (for obvious reasons). You can use any of these methods and as always, we would like to know if you faced any issues while using these. Also, if you know of any other, easier way to do this, you can let us know about it in the comments section below.

Akshay has been a gadget freak since longer than he cares to admit and loves everything to do with technology. When he's not fanboying over the latest and greatest in the tech universe, he watches Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley.

4 COMMENTS

You can try out AirMore, which is a free transfer software working on web, in other words, in a wireless way. No need to carry USB cable at all and install any app on PC. I have used for a while. It’s easy to operate. Through the QR code or Radar, you can successfully connect your phone with PC.

This tool can transfer not only photos but also music, videos, files etc.

Hi Elyce!
Did your iPhone prompt you to “Allow this device to access photos and videos”? Unless you explicitly grant access, Windows will not be able to access your iPhone’s photos and videos.
Also, you may need to update the USB drivers for your PC.